Computing devices may be connected to each other via various network elements. The computing devices experience latencies that are dependent on the specific network elements included in the connection. The experienced latencies can directly affect the user experience on the computing devices. Some existing systems measure the latencies for computing devices in fixed locations, such as a personal computer connected to the Internet. Such measurements are specific to each of the computing devices, and typically have high time and data traffic costs.
Other systems use geo-location databases to convert the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of each computing device to latitude-longitude values to estimate latency between the computing devices based on geographic distance. Such systems are typically fast but inaccurate at least because latitude-longitude values for many IP addresses are missing or misplaced. Additionally, the correlation between geographic distance and latency is poor with the existing systems. Further, for mobile devices, there is often no correlation between IP addresses and latitude-longitude values. Even for mobile devices that have a correlation between IP address and latitude-longitude values, the geographic locations of mobile devices do not correlate well to latency (e.g., due to the effect of factors such as congestion and signaling).